söndag 27 november 2011

Welcome dear reader! At 19 today the radio program Folke is running it's show, and I will in the program share some thoughts about this blog. I'm proud to be in the same program as the portrait of Ahmad Al Khatib and Youssef Hbeisch, two brilliant musicians who I will have the pleasure to work with in a collaboration next year.

Also tomorrow I will be in radio, a morning show at local radio station Radio Dalarna. Dalarna, my home county where I was born and raised! I will then give my thoughts on a specific number that the radio man will give me.

Other news for now is that Irmelin, vocal trio, has been chosen to go to APAP music fair in New York in January, plus we recieved the grant from the State Cultural Affairs. Yippe! Also Nordic Wedding Music, trio with guitarist Mats Eriksson and saxopfon player Mikael Godée, has been approved in the same type of application. So it means we have wind in our sails.

Wind....hm, there's a storm over Göteborg right now, let's hope that everything will work out for the best with traffic and weather related things over the west coast of Sweden.

I'm in a course for actor Henric Holmberg, about litterature, poetry, and the art of reading poems loud. An amazing world of spoken word. It's very different to read poems loud than to just read them with your eyes. What a fantastic course, so right on the spot now. I will miss those mondays when it's over.I finish this with a poem of Tomas Tranströmer.

fredag 11 november 2011

Stockholm Film Festival on a foggy November night. Before show, I'm so much longing to visit the magic, absurd and fascinating world of Miranda July in her film The Future. She wrote the manus, directed the film and play one of the main roles in it. I feel at home in her world, I've seen the previous film and read her earlier book.After the show Miranda skyped with us in the audience. This was absolutley special to me, and a historic moment in the film festival, first time they had a face to face talk on skype. Normally the directors are present in the room, this time Miranda was in her home in Los Angeles. Miranda was speaking of the artistic process making the movie, how it was sprung from performance she made. She also explained the symbols and the roots of certain parts of the movie, her way of looking at contamporary society, us humans how we look at our time, our lives, our future.

Miranda waving good bye to us and recieving our warm and heartful ovations.

måndag 7 november 2011

Yesterday at concert something very special happened. One listener in the audience, a blind man, said afterwards that our music and my way of making the songs alive in the storytelling made him see pictures. He could once in his life see, and now we made him see things again. I'm definitely not any kind of small Jesus, but things like this is miracles to me. It makes me wanna go on and sing, it makes it all worthwhile. The blind man also said that the concert was going to warm him up for long time to come. I can say his response to our music will do the same for me, it gives me courage to go forward and never give up for my music dreams. It's so clear, how a reaction from a single person in a small venue can be so important.

Our audience yesterday was really really appreiative, all of them. Both Hannu and I were given flowers from a blacksmith who had walked several kilometers to get to concert. Very special. Thank you for flowers, and thank you all of you listeners,yes,I will keep these moments in my memory, very dear.

lördag 5 november 2011

I've been a full day outdoor, by the sea and in the forest, invited by Sensus as a thank you for jobs I've done. So I say, thank you Sensus for a wonderful inspirational day! We had a guide with us, Anders Nicander, who knows almost everything about the life of the trout. A fish that in this time of the year leave the big sea, swim into the rivers, jump upwards waterfalls of the smaller streams and find their perfect places to mate and make new fish. About 10 people, not knowing each other since before, going out in the forest to spy on mating fish, that's also a way of spending a Friday, isn't it?Temperature has to be perfect for the trout, waterlevels/amount of rain has to be perfect, the small stones on the bottom of the stream has to be perfect size. Isn't it a miracle somehow? That's also a reason not all fish of the population swim into the streams, some 10% stay in sea and do it next year instead, just in case the weather or nature for some reason would destroy the whole process one year. How does the fish know when to go?Everytime I get this small insight in such a complicated eco-system, I just have to say: life is a miracle!

Yesterday was a day of many shades of grey. Perfect for some photographing. Our guide is a fish photographer for a fishers magazine, so he had a lot to tell how it is to try to catch a fish on photo. Many hours laying in the stream in a wetsuit it is...a rather contemplative thing actually. I'm glad I'm not doing his job thou.... I really tried to make a pic of a fish, and the result can be seen below. I have deleted many pics that is just showing water surface. There's a trout's fin crossing the surface in this one:And I had the luck to see many trout! Big ones, playing ones. They easily see us, so we had to be very careful going close to the water. This means we had to crawl in the mud to the stream shore. But in the forest it's many things to look at.

onsdag 2 november 2011

This is the way it goes on a day of a concert. Contemplating and doing practical preparations.

As usual, I feel a little disorganized but at the same time so strong about the music we are going to play. Like a feeling that the whole world needs to hear the songs we will play tonight, as answer to all kinds of questions there might be in a human mind. Because we are mirrors, music is like poetry, it's open for understanding in many ways. Folk music is often a reflection of timeless questions about life and death, jealosy, love, broken hearts, boldness and courage.

I've sung the songs on my own, I've read the lyrics loud (my daughter is sighing about this...)I've decided what the outfit will be, most black and white colours for the sake of the drama ingredients found in the swedish-finnish songs.

I've almost packed the bag with stage clothes, shoes, microphone, book of lyrics and set list. What else do I need to bring?

I will just now, after I've finished writing, do some yoga.

A cup of coffé and then go.

Life is so fantastic. Here's one of my inspirational movies, made by multi-artist Miranda July: